Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1887-08-27

/
this world found their chief joy in the legal
| PROFESSIONALISM are they doing nowg Study
| Ing law in a universe where everything is
controlled by law, from flight Of humming
bird to flight Of worlo-law, not dry and hard
| and dredging, but righteous and magnificent
law, before which man and cherub and seraph
and archangel and God himself bow The
i chain of law long enough to wind around the
immensities and inilnity and eternity. Chain
| of law. What place TO study law, where all
the links Of thu chain are in the handi
| What are our departed Christian friends
! who in this world had their joy in the heal
ing art, doing nowi Busy at their old BUSH
| ness. No sickness in heaven, but plenty of
sickness on earth, plenty OF wounds in the diff
ferent parts OF Gods dominion to be healed
| and to be medicated. You cannot understand
| why that patient got well after all the skill
| full doctors of New York and Brooklyn had
/ said he must die. Perhaps Abercombie
| touched him-Abercombie, who, after many
years doctoring the bodies and the souls of
people in Scotland went up to God in 1874.
| Perhaps Abercombe toucned him.
! l should not wonder if my old friend, DIR.
John Brown, who died in Edinburgh
/ Brown, the author of "Rab and His Friends"
I John Brown, who was as humble Christian
as he was skilful physician and world
/ renowned aiithor-I should not wonder if hs
had been back again and again to seesome of
| his old patients. Those who had their JOY i'll
| healing the sickness and the woes of earth,
! gone up to Heaven. are come forth again for
benignant medicament.
But what are our friends who found their
chief joy in conversation and in sociality
doing nowi In brighter conversation there
] and in grander sociality
What a place to visit in, where your next
door neighbors are kings and queens You
yourselves kingly and queenly. If they wantto
know more particularly about the first
Paradise, they have only to go over and ask
Adam If they want TO know how the sun
| and the moon halted, they have only to go
over and ask Joshua. If they want to know
how the storm pelted Sodom, they have only
\ TO go over and ask Lot If they want to
know more about the arrogance Of
Hannah, they have only to go over and ask
Mortecai. If they want to know how the
/ Red Sea boiled when it was cloven, they have
only to go over and ask Moses II they want
to know the particulars aboat the Bethlehem
advent, teey have only to go over and ask
the serenading angels who stood that Christ
mas night in the balconies of crystal. II they
want to know more Of the particulars of the
crucifixion, they ha' only to go over and ask
those who were personal spectators while the
mountains crouched and the heavens got black
| in the face at the spectacle If they want to
know more about the sufferings of the Scotch
COvenantsrs, they have only to go over and
ask Andrew Melville Ifthey want to know
| more about the old-time revivas, they have
/
ley, and Livingston, and Fletcher and Nettle-
ton, and Finney. OH what a place to visit
/ In.
II eternity were one minute shorter it would
not be long enough for such sociality. Think
\ of our friends in this world who were pas
| sionately fond of flowers turned into Para
disc. Think Of our friends who were very
/ fond of raising superb fruit turned into the
orchard where each tree has twelve kinds of
fruit at once, and bearing the fruit all the
year round.
What are our departed Christian friends
doing in Heaven-those who on earth found
their chief joy in the Gospel ministry They
are visiting their old congregations.
Most OF those ministers have got their peo-
pie around them already. When get to
heaven-as by the grace of God am des-
tined to go to that place. will come and see
you all. Yea, l will come to all the people to
whom have ministered in the Gospel, and
to the millions Of souls to whom, through the
kindness Of the printing press, am permitted
to preach every week in this laid and in
other lands-letters coming from New Zea-
land and Australia and uttermost parts of
the earth, as well as from near nations. telling
me Of the souls l have helped-I will visit
them all Igive them fair notice. Our de-
parted friends of the ministry engaged in
that delectable entertainment now.
But what are our departed Christian
/ friends, who in all departments of usefulness
were busy, finding their chief joy in doing
| Eood-what are they doing nowl Going
right on with the work. John Howard visit
ing dungeons; the dead women of Northern
and Southern battle fieldsstill abroad looking
for the wounded; George Peabody still
watching the poor; Thomas Clark
son still looking after the enslaved-
| all of those who did good on
earth buster since death than before. The
tombstone not the terminus but the starting
post. What are our departed Christian
1 hr nd hair chi Of in cffr6U
ing God, doing nowi Studying God yet.
| No need of revelation now, for unblanched
they are face to face. Now, they can handle
thspmnipOtent thunderbolts just as child
handles the sword of a father come back
from victorious battle. They have no sin,
nor fear consequently. Studying Christ,
not through revelation, save the
revelation of the scars, that deep
| lettering which brings it all up quick enough.
Studying the Christ of the Bethlehem cara
vansary, the Christ of the awful massacre,
with its hemorrhage Of head and hand and
| foot and side-the Christ of the shattered
mausoleum-Christ the sacrifice, the star, the
sun, the man, the God, the God-mau the man
God.
But harkl the bell of the cathedral rings
the cathedral bell Of heaven.
What is the matter nowl There is going to
be great meeting in the temple. Worship
pers all coming through the aisles. Make
| room for the conqueror. Christ standing in
! the temple. All heaven gathering around
i Him. Those who loved the beautiful come to
look at the Rose of Sharon. Those who loved
music come TO listen to His voice. Those who
/ were mathematician come to count
the years Of His reign. Those who
were explorers come to discover the height
and the depth, and the length and
| the breadth of his love. Those who had the
] military spirit on earth sanctifed, and the
military spirit in Heaven, come to look at
the Captain Of their salvation. The astrono-
mers come to look at the morning star The
men OF the law come to look at Him who is
the Judge Of quick and dead. The men who
healed the sick come to look at Him who was
| wounded for our transgressions
All different and different forever in many
respects, vet all alike in admiration for
| Christ, in worship for Christ, and all alike in
| joining in the doxology: Unto Him who
washed us from our sins in His own blood,
and made us kings and priests unto God, tG
Him be glory in the church throughout all
ages, world without endl" Amen.